‘Callous’ killer who decapitated and ate drug consumer, 49, is jailed

A ‘cold and callous’ killer who dismembered a ‘vulnerable’ drug addicted lodger before boasting he had ‘cooked’ the victim’s head and eaten his cheeks, while scattering the rest of his body around town, has been jailed for 19 years.

Benjamin Atkins, 49, bragged to his partner Debbie Pereira, 39, both of Bournemouth, Dorset, that he had cooked and eaten part of Simon Shotton’s face, jurors were previously told.

The 48-year-old’s limbs were sawn off with a hacksaw and scattered across a coastal city ‘piece by piece’, a court heard.

His legs were dumped in a plastic bag where in a ‘grisly’ find they were discovered by by a passerby, sparking a murder hunt, the court heard.

After officers detained the couple, prosecutors said the couple were covertly recorded in the back of a police van bragging of the brutal murder – with Atkins confessing he’d do it ‘again and again’.

However, he has never admitted officially what he did with his victim’s head.

After being found guilty of murder at Winchester Crown Court, Hampshire, Atkins was today sentenced to 19 years in prison for his ‘gruesome’ attack while his former partner, Pereira, was sentenced to four.

‘Your callousness is shocking, you still refuse to say what happened to the rest of his head and I do not believe your remorse is genuine,’ The Honourable Mrs Justice Mary Stacey told Atkins.

Mr Shotton was murdered in August last year in Bournemouth, Dorset and various body parts were discovered in the Boscombe area of the city.

A sample of muscle tissue revealed the ‘human remains’ belonged to Mr Shotton, who at the time of his death was squatting in a ‘derelict’ bed and breakfast.

After obtaining call data from the deceased 48-year-old’s mobile phones, the police were led to a nearby pawn shop where they uncovered Pereira had brought in Mr Shotton’s iPhone on August 18.

On September 1, the police went to Pereira’s home and discovered her partner of 18 months ‘hiding behind a wheelbarrow at the side of the property’.

Neighbours had complained of a terrible smell after Atkins lit a bonfire in the garden.

The couple were arrested and the following day, after conducting a ‘forensic’ search of their house, found the ‘severed arms’ of Mr Shotton in two black bin bags outside.

Prosecutor Paul Cavin KC told the jurors that Pereira had asked police: ‘[Atkins] told his solicitor that if he admitted that he did it, if he admitted that he cooked Simon’s head up and ate his cheeks, would it get me off the hook?’

She told police Mr Shotton had stayed at her address two weeks prior to his death – and Atkins ‘did not like’ him as he was ‘not giving them enough drugs for allowing him to stay’.

Pereira was found not guilty of murder, but found guilty of perverting the course of justice by a unanimous jury verdict.

Today at the couple’s sentencing Mr Cavin said Atkins showed ‘extreme callousness’ and a ‘lack of remorse’.

Mitigating for Atkins, Zafar Ali, told the judge the crime ‘was not a murder for gain’ and there was ‘no pre-mediation’

‘We must accept, and we do accept, that the dismemberment and disposal and concealing of the body is a significant aggravating factor,’ he said.

The court heard a victim impact statement from Mr Shotton’s son, Wesley, who was just 19 when his dad was murdered.

‘When we were together he was focused on giving my brother and I the best time,’ Wesley continued.

‘He would have found it hard not seeing us and that was when he would be vulnerable for being used and abused.

‘His need to get money to live would have made him a target to those who want to exploit him for drugs.’

The son, who is now in his early 20s, condemned the ‘lengths’ Atkins went to to destroy his body.

‘You were given the chance over months to tell us what you’d done with my dad’s head,’ he said.

‘We had to make a decision as a family to continue with his funeral, knowing he wasn’t whole.

‘I would have waited for years to have all of him.

‘You wrecked so many more lives than just my dad’s. No sentence will ever be enough for what you did.’

Judge Stacey sentenced Atkins to 19 years in prison for the ‘ferocious and unnecessary’ attack.

She said there was some evidence of Atkins acting in ‘excessive self defence’ as a row had erupted over drugs and money in the moments before his death.

‘The disseminating and dismembering of the various parts of Simon’s body is particularly gruesome and took place over a number of days,’ she told the 49-year-old.

‘Your callousness is shocking, you still refuse to say what happened to the rest of his head and I do not believe your remorse is genuine.

‘The dismembering of the deceased’s body will have caused, and will continue to cause, pain and distress to the deceased’s family.’

On Mr Shotton, she said ‘the pain he suffered must have been unbearable’ and said Atkins had ‘systematically’ dismembered his body – having read an autonomy book.

She added: ‘You have never said what you had done with the rest of his head.’

Addressing his co-defendant, the judge said: ‘Miss Pereira, you were a joint participant in what happened to Simon’s body.

‘I do not accept that you had no agency in the relationship and that you were as powerless as you now try to present.’

She continued: ‘There was an element of control in the relationship but not to the extent that you portray.

‘Without your help, Mr Atkins could not have done what he did.

‘You could have contacted the police at any time, you did nothing to help Simon.

‘Perhaps if you had told the police when you saw the fight happening, then Simon would still be here today.’

The judge condemned the ‘ferocity of the attack’ adding: ‘This case is one of the largest and complex cases in the history of Dorset police.’